Voluntary Sector Funding
At the beginning of the meeting, Donald Gorrie circulated a letter that he received from the Minister for Social Justice. I shall allow members a minute to read that letter before I ask Donald to comment.
Meeting adjourned.
On resuming—
Members have now had time to read the letter of 6 March, from the Minister for Social Justice. I invite Donald Gorrie to update the committee on the progress that he has made on the proposed inquiry into voluntary sector funding.
In response to her letter, I wrote back to Jackie Baillie and managed to secure a meeting with her—which is never an easy thing to do with overworked ministers. I shall meet her next Wednesday. In the light of the letter, it would be useful to know how long the strategic review will take, although the minister says that the Executive hopes to have things in place by April 2003.
I intend to report back to the committee on three options for discussion. First, we could conduct a fairly rapid and limited review that would focus on the main issues, which we could input into the consultation that the social justice department is undertaking. Secondly, we could focus on different issues and conduct our own inquiry in parallel with the Executive's, but not overlapping it. Thirdly, if the committee thought it best, we could—because the Executive is dealing with the matter—abandon the idea of an inquiry. I hope to be able to report back on those options.
I have continued to visit a variety of voluntary bodies, some of which have expressed the view that they would have more confidence in a review that was conducted by the committee than in one that was conducted by the Executive, which may be carried out by civil servants who are tied into the existing system.
Bullet point 4 of Jackie Baillie's letter, on
"developing a stable funding environment for the sector,"
does not deal with the issue of core funding versus project funding or of how people can be funded out of lottery funds, European funds or charitable funds. To me and to other colleagues, that is one of the main issues. I hope that, after the Easter recess, I shall be able to report back and that we will be able to discuss how to proceed.
Thank you, Donald. Do any members wish to comment?
Yes, thank you, convener. I apologise for arriving late.
Given what Donald Gorrie said and what others have told him, Donald's first suggestion appears to be the most sensible route to follow. It would be useful if Donald, who has been appointed reporter, studied the consultation document and reported on its adequacy, including the principles that will guide the review that the Executive will undertake. He could then take some early evidence from the voluntary sector on its views on the consultation and how that will progress. That report could be fed in via the committee to the relevant ministers. That might help to steer the review or adjust the rudder slightly as the review kicks off.
To an extent, we have been overtaken by events—the minister is to undertake a major review, which is possibly more than we had expected. I had not recalled that a review had been announced until it was mentioned today. Perhaps the best route would be to provide early input into the review by having Donald Gorrie, as the reporter, consider its scope and take early evidence that could be fed back through the committee.
I endorse that view.
Will you refresh my memory, Donald? I remember that when you reported to the committee previously, you mentioned that you had spoken to Karen Whitefield, who is a member of the Social Justice Committee. Is that committee conducting an inquiry on the voluntary sector?
No. I spoke to the clerk to that committee and wrote to Karen Whitefield. To the best of my knowledge, she has not replied, although the reply might be in a heap of mail somewhere. I had information that Karen Whitefield had conducted an across-the-board review of the voluntary sector, which one might describe—without being critical—as slightly superficial, but which itemised different aspects. The Social Justice Committee decided to concentrate on legal charitable status, which is important. The committee clerk's advice was that that was all in the committee's queue of activities that related to the voluntary sector, so we were not treading on its toes.
I support other colleagues' view that the committee should conduct its own review and feed into the process. I reinforce Donald Gorrie's points about core funding versus project funding, and roll-over provision. The system for many projects of what is, in effect, competitive tendering, and the interrelationship between challenge funding and subsequent rolling-out of projects are not addressed in our strategic approach. Far too often, projects turn out on evaluation to have been highly successful, yet no one seems to have worked out what should happen. Such projects often go into limbo or fail to be rolled out.
The second-last bullet point in Jackie Baillie's letter particularly interests me. I have quite a lot of experience of the issue in relation to other Executive departments. The point concerns the bureaucracy that is involved in not only applying for funds, but in reporting on them and the activities that they provide for. That must be considered carefully. As I said, in other areas in which I have been involved, a massive proportion of the funding has been taken up by a requirement to report too frequently. Given that the Executive is also talking about focusing in future on outcomes rather than on inputs, consideration of how bodies must report at present would help. We are addressing financial aspects, but targets and finance are often linked.
Andrew Wilson proposed that we adopt Donald Gorrie's first suggestion. There has been general support for that, so I take it that the committee has agreed to follow that approach. After the Easter recess, Donald will report to the committee on his meeting with the Minister for Social Justice.
I will meet her next week and tell her that the committee would like to be constructively involved in the review.
Are you meeting the minister in your role as reporter?
That is correct.
That completes agenda item 4.